Methodology

Our methodology is a combination of core statistics from more than 400 global cities and resident and visitor perception indicators like user-generated ratings and reviews.

Resonance interprets this data through the lens of three key factors—Livability, Lovability and Prosperity—to define each city’s Place Power^™ Score.

How we ranked World’s Best Cities for 2026

To rank the performance and perception of the World’s Best Cities for 2026, Resonance analyzed the principal cities of metropolitan statistical areas with populations of more than 1,000,000 (according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and each country’s federal agency for statistical data). We determined the Top 100 cities using a combination of core statistics and user-generated data from online sources such as Google, Instagram, and TikTok to measure quality of place when it comes to experiential factors. This ranking also excludes all Russian cities, as it has since 2022, due to the country’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and its ongoing military aggression.

This blend of data led to the creation of Resonance’s proprietary Place Power^™ Score, the foundation of all of our Best Cities rankings. So how does Resonance choose the metrics to effectively measure an urban region’s performance relative to its competitors? While many factors shape our perception of urban regions as desirable places to live, work or visit, Resonance’s rankings are focused on the shared factors that demonstrate moderate to strong correlations with the performance of urban regions when it comes to attracting prime-age population (age 25–44), visitation trends, and/or business formation. Based on our ongoing analysis, these factors are an eclectic mix that range from the number of large companies headquartered in a city to the variety of nightlife and outdoor recreation experiences.

Since these factors can change and evolve over time, we continually update our methodology to reflect these shifts. For example, in recent years we’ve included new measures such as Weather (to gauge the volatility of precipitation) and Public Transportation (to assess residents’ accessibility to public transit). We’ve also refined our data sources to improve global coverage and reduce regional bias. For example, we now integrate online review data from Google, which offers stronger representation across regions, and supplement global social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook with equivalent platforms in markets where these are not accessible, such as Weibo and Rednote for Chinese cities, ensuring a more accurate reflection of local and international engagement.

In total, our performance data measures 46 metrics across 30 categories. All metrics are weighted evenly and aggregated up to the category level, and all categories are weighted equally and aggregated up to each Livability, Lovability, and Prosperity pillar.

As part of our partnership with Ipsos (see page 4), we combined the performance data of the categories that comprise our overall Livability, Lovability, and Prosperity indices with perception data reflecting the opinions and preferences of more than 21,000 respondents across 31 countries spanning North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Africa. Each country was given equal weight in the total data set.The survey was constructed to extract the towns and cities where these 21,000 people would most like to live, where they would most like to visit, and where they believe they would find the best job opportunities. This was accomplished with three open-ended questions where respondents could identify the towns and cities that they prefer.

We asked them, when thinking about places across the globe, including small towns and large cities: which three towns or cities would you most like to live in, most like to visit, and think currently offer the best job opportunities?

This open-ended question methodology enabled us to capture the destinations that are top of mind to survey participants rather than restricting them to a predetermined list of cities.

The responses to these questions were aggregated and coded to benchmark the perception equivalent of our performance results, creating a true balance across our three overall indices of Livability, Lovability, and Prosperity.